This is why the Tea Party is a joke. Main Street conservatives theoretically want to cut government spending, and farm subsidies are the original socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor that has afflicted America since the Gilded Age. Electing more “fiscally conservative” Republicans was supposed to turn this around or at least take the edge off it, but we can see this hasn’t happened.

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About thrasymachus33308

I like fast cars, fast women and southern-fried rock. I have an ongoing beef with George Orwell. I take my name from a character in Plato's "Republic" who was exasperated with the kind of turgid BS that passed for deep thought and political discourse in that time and place, just as I am today. The character, whose name means "fierce fighter" was based on a real person but nobody knows for sure what his actual political beliefs were. I take my pseudonym from a character in an Adam Sandler song who was a obnoxious jerk who pissed off everybody.

6 Responses to Why I’m Not a Republican

I agree. I friggin’ hate the Republicans more than the Dems, and I’m going to be actively campaigning for Obama this fall. Mitt Romney is going to have to dog whistle a LOT LOUDER, like Pat Buchanan loud, to get the attention of the White Werewolves.

And I forgot to mention — re: food stamps and ag subsidies. I couldn’t agree with you more. Direct ag subsidies are 20 billion a year. The vast majority of farmers don’t see a dime of that, those subsidies are all for corn/wheat/soybeans/cotton.

I have established as fact that growing vegetable gardens the right way does in fact produce enough savings on food to come out ahead, and I’m working with the working poor to get them to do this. For example, if you grow and store 500 pounds of potatoes, you have money or SNAP credits left over for meat, milk, et cetera. I have convinced one family to try this out. They helped me plant a decent sized potato patch, and they’ll be back to dig potatoes when the plants die. I also helped htem put in a small garden at their apartment, and they got permission to do a much larger garden next year. We’ll cure the potatoes and put them in burlap mesh bags, and if I have a large enough tomato harvest, I’ll give them some for making tomato juice and storing in mason jars. This will definitely save this family quite a bit of money, and they will in turn spread this idea to their friends.

My goal — get this to go viral. Get the working poor to grow food, save money, and when there are milloins of people growing their own food, start screaming at the government “where’s my subsidy!”
Attack agribusiness, because they suck money from the taxpayer, they put out corn syrup food that makes people obese and diabetic, costing us 147 billion a year in health care costs, and they were the original illegal immigrant hirers. Agribusiness delenda est.

MW, do you know about Joel Salatin, grasslands farming, and Polyface Farms?

Salatin can be a hard act for the beginning gardner or farmer to follow, as he is an hereditary farmer with generations of experience behind him, and also a born entrepreneur and original thinker. Most folks are not, but he is on the right track.